Art or method of creating intricate, symmetrical, geometrical line designs.



W. S EATON.

ART OR METHOD OF CREATING INTRICATE, SYMMETBICAL, GEOMETRICAL LINE DES|GNS..

APPLICATION HLED OCT. 23. l9l3.

1,261,223. Patented Apr. 2, 1918.

Atty.

FIQ.

WILLIAM s. EATON, or SAG HARBOR, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, A CORPORATION on NEW YORK.

ART 0R METHOD OF CREATINGINTRICATE, SYMMETRICAL, GEOMETRICAL LINE DESIGNS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 2, 1918.

Application filed October 23, 1913. Serial No. 796,819.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. EATON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sag Harbor, in the county of Suffolk and State, of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art or Method of Creating Intricate, Symmetrical, Geometrical Line Designs, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings, which form a part thereof.

My invention relates to the artor method of creating intricate, symmetrical, geometrical line designs, and more particularly to an art or method adapted to create designs suitable for use in the industrial arts.

' The main object of the invention is to provide an art or method of-the character herein described by means ofwhichfan intricate, symmetrical,geometrical line design may be developed from a simple, elementary outline, character or base, (having, in itself, no resemblance to the created design) the design created being unique and fanciful and resulting from the practice of my art or method, rather than from any predetermined intent as to, or conception of, the nature of the completed design. A further object is to provide an art or method Wherein a'large number'of dissimilar designs may be created from the same elementary outline, character or base, which designs will bear no resemblanceto each other. A still further object is to provide such an art or method wherein, if desired, a plurality of dissimilar designs may be simultaneously created from the same elementary outline, character or base and be superimposed one upon the other so that when creating figures in the nature of a rosette, different tone values may be secured at different points of,

and a distinct center design may be included line, character or base carried by said master upon a work plate or sheet, varying the relative positions of said master and said work plate or sheet in two directions after making said reproductions, and thereafter alternately reproducing said outline, character or base, and varying the relative positions of said master and said work plate or sheet, whereby succeeding reproductions will be spaced apart and the lines thereof will intersect each other; and in such other novel steps and practices as are hereinafter set forth and described, and more particularly pointed out in the claims hereto appended.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view of an elementary outline, character or base, adapted for use in the practice of my art or method; and

Fig. 2 is a representation of a fragmentary portion of a design created or developed therefrom. l

In the practice of my art or method, I select an elementary outline, character or base of any desired configuration, as exemplified at a in Fig. l of the drawings, and impress it upon a master composed of any substance, in a manner which will enable the operator to successively reproduce this simple figure.

By the use of the term elementary outline, character or base, I contemplate a single outline forming ageometrical figure, or an incomplete geometrical figure, which in itself is simple, but which by repeated reproduction with suitable spacing, will develop a complex design, having no resemblance to the base of said design.

Thereafter, I bring said elementary outline, character orbase into such relation to a work plate, or sheet, as to facilitate the process of transferring said elementary outline, character or base to, or reproducing it upon, said work plate or sheet, in any de sired manner, and by any desired medium.

After each reproduction of said elementary outline, character or base, I vary the relative positions of said master carrying said elementary outline, character or base, and the work plate or sheet, the nature and extent of this variance being determined by the general character of the design which I desire to create. I

If I desire to-create a straight elongated design, the relative movement of these parts will be rectilinear; if I desire curved outlines to the created figure, and also an elongated, or polygonal figure, this movement will be curvilinear; while if the design to be created is to have the general form of a circle,'the movement will be circular; and if this figure is to have an irregular contour, the movement will be a circular movement with a radial component of motion either away from or toward the center of the line of circular movement, which radial movement at different points in the creation of the design, may be varied to give an irregular contour to the created design. If, however, I desire to create a polygonal figure, I alternate a sequence of rectilinear or curvilinear movements with a circular movement, to form the angles of such figures.

The movements in securing variances in the relative positions of the master, having thereon the elementary outline, character or base and the work plate or sheet, must be step by step movements, the reproductions being alternated so as to insure exactitude in the reproduction of the elementary outline, character or base, while at the same time spacing these reproductions to form a line design.

When creating designs which in their contour resemble circular figures, the outline may be varied by a combined circular and radial movement; and by varying the quantity of this radial movement, two separate and distinct desi 'ns may be superimposed one upon the other, one design being developed from one end of the elementary outline, character or base, and the other de sign from the other end thereof.

Furthermore, in developing these two designs, or in developing a single design, there will be created in such a figure a center design, which is entirely distinct and apart from the other design or designs. 7

' The angle at which the lines of succeeding reproductions of the elementary outline, character or base intersect, is varied by this radial movement, and the eifect is a fanciful, arbitrary design such as is illustrated at c in Fig. 2 of the drawings having various tone values, and one that is symmetrical throughout by reason of the fact that it is built up from a single elementary outline, character or base.

The formation of one design superimposed upon another is secured by positioning the elementary outline, character or base so that the major portion thereof will be upon one side or the other of the center of the circular movement, and imparting a radial movement thereto which will bring the major portion thereof upon the other side of such center at different times, while the design is being created.

The elementary outline, character or base will be reproduced repeatedly until an elonthis peculiarity, that although the relative movements of the elementary outline, character or base, and the work plate or sheet may follow an outline which may be ac curately or definitely predetermined, the design created by following these movements will have an outline or general configuration which will bear no resemblance whatever ta such outline. In fact, it is impossible to determine what the nature of the design created will be, and the same design cannot be reproduced excepting by the same se qence of movements, and the use of the same elementary outline, character or base.

In the completed design, the numerous intersections of the lines of the reproduced elementary outline, character or base make it p "actically impossible tofollow any particular line, so as to determine the character of this elementary outline, character or base, and the eccentricity of the outline will likewise make it impossible to determine the sequence of movements followed to develop any particular figure.

Where the radial movement is slight, and the elementary outline, character or base is comparatively wide at the middle, there is apt to be no intersection of linesat the center, thus developing a central figure of a light tone, while if this radial movement is great, the cent :11 figure is apt to be of a dark tone or made up of lines so closely intersecting as to resemble the heavy shadows of half tone work.

I believe it to be broadly new to develop intricate, symmetrical, geometrical line designs by the repeated reproduction of an elementary outline, character or base, upon a work plate or sheet, and a step by steprelative movement of these two, to space the succeeding reproductions, these succeeding spacings being alternated with the reproductions of the elementary outline, character or base, and I intend to claim such broadly.

My art or method 'may be practised by means of a special mechanism for securing the desired relative movement of the 'elementary outline, character or base, and the work plate or sheet and by a special reproducing mechanism such as a pantograph,-

but it is not my intention to limit the practice of my art or method to any particular mechanism, or any mechanism, as the same,-

plate or sheet, and ordinary tools or implements for securing the desired reproduction of said elementary outline, character or base upon said work plate or sheet.

Having described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to have protected by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein described art or method of creating intricate, symmetrical, geometrical line designs consisting in producing an elementary outline, character or base, upon a master reproducing the outline, character or base carried by said master upon a work plate or sheet, varying the relative positions of said master and said Work plate or sheet by a circular movement, and a movement radially of the axis of said circular movement, and thereafter alternately reproducing said elementary outline, character or base, and varying the relative position of said master and of said Work plate or sheet by circular and radial movements, whereby succeeding reproductions will be spaced apart, and the lines will intersect each other andcreate a design bearing no resemblance to said elementary outline, character or base.

2. The herein described art or method of creating intricate, symmetrical, geometrical line designs consisting in producing an elementary outline, character, or base upon a master, reproducing the outline, character or base carried by said master upon a work plate or sheet, varying the relative positions of said master and said work plate or sheet by a, circular movement, and a movement radially of the axis of said circular movement, thereafter alternately reproducing said outline, character or base and varying the relative positions of said master and of said work plate or sheet by circular and radial movements, the quantity of such radial movements being varied, whereby succeeding reproductions Will be spaced apart and the lines will intersect each other and create a design having an irregular contour hearing no resemblance to said elementary outline, character or base.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 2d day of October, 1913.

WILLIAM S. EATON. Witnesses:

WM. R. REIMANN, E. P. EATON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patente,

Washington, D. 0." 

